Monday, April 12, 2010

Feed Back: Weird Tuna

A few weeks ago I wrote about solving my own grocery day dilemma which prompted Andrew to respond with a comment about his (self-proclaimed) weird tuna concoction involving apples and onions. I was intrigued.

half apple on cutting board

I have an odd relationship with onions. I like them cold and raw (preferably minced very fine) or cooked, at the very least, to a completely softened state. If they fall somewhere in between, I just can't seem to stomach them; the short cooking time for tuna melts results in warm, raw onions and this is the precise reason I avoid adding them to mine. I decided to start with a frying pan.

sautéing onions and walnuts

As I began my onion sauté, I though about how much I love the cozy combination of apples and walnuts and wondered how they would work in this mix. Since we were already working with weird, I crushed a few and added them to the pan. When the onions were done to my preference point, I moved them to a mixing bowl, along with my already diced apple (skins intact for some additional colour) and a short stalk of celery that I wanted to use up.

apples, onions, walnuts, celery

This is the part where I must confess that I completely veered from the original plan and took this tuna in a whole new direction. Already going nuts earlier, I kept building on instinct, now using the idea but making it my own. The downside to this? If the melts were a flop I could no longer hold Andrew responsible. Still, I continued with confidence and worked on the dressing; a couple scoops of mayonnaise, some sea salt, fresh ground pepper, paprika, cayenne, lemon juice and a healthy dose of curry.

curried mayonnaise dressing

After stirring together the dressing, the apple mixture and one drained can of tuna, I scooped even amounts over thick beds of fresh cornbread, topping each with diced slices of cheese before popping the pan in to the oven to bake.

tuna mixture on cornbread

fresh out of the oven

The verdict? Not weird, but wonderful. Different flavours I would never have thought to try together, but am certainly glad I did. Thanks to Andrew for sharing your idea; I hope you'll try my variation on your recipe.